Traveling Man

This past Monday I took a day off. No big deal perhaps, but I haven't had a day off since New Year's Day. 7 days after 7 days after 7 days, etc. Perhaps a whole day off would have been a day without Dad, but he is here so we took him along. I said to my bride, "Hey, want to go to the river and see the eagles?" Now I know that wives don't get a day off even when they have a day off, so I was sure she would say yes. Off we all went. Dad was a little skeptical. When I said bald eagles he thought we were going to a ball game. We must have gone over that at least 10 times, no exaggeration, before he understood it wasn't a basketball game. Selective hearing or just impaired hearing. Off we set.

When Dad came to live with us we made one sad and great change. My bride stopped sitting in the front seat with me in deference to Dad. We have a bench seat so she can sit right next to me just like 30 plus years ago. But she has sat in the back until last week. On our way to church I said, "Hey, sit up front with me," and she did. Dad was relegated to the back seat. He rode in the back seat all the way for the hour and a half trip then on Monday. Occasionally he would mumble something, but we couldn't understand a word he said. My bride turned around and asked him a couple times what he said, but he couldn't remember, and that was that. We watched the eagles for 20 minutes and went to get something to eat and came home. Same scenario on the way home. We did stop in a small town where we used to live 50 years ago so he could show me the house. He couldn't remember it though, and we drove on with occasional comments from the back seat that were completely unclear and completely unremembered.

That is one reason I don't want him up front anymore. He talks a lot, but he never says much most times, not much that can be understood anyway. He does have his moments that he is as clear as anyone, but mostly he mumbles and has no idea what he has mumbled. Sadly though, he usually wants a response and that can be distracting in the car constantly asking what and getting only a mumble for an answer. The upshot, however, of the trip was that he had a really good time. So did I and so did my bride. It was great. He told his card playing buddy about it the next day and my brother about it two days later. That is a pretty good memory for a man that doesn't have one. He loved his trip. Thanks to a major winter storm that has socked our area for the past two days, I have had another day off. WOW. And more than that, I think as a result of it I will get another one off next week. Maybe we can take the traveling man somewhere else. My bride read an Alzheimer's book, "Creating Moments of Joy". We try.

One other thing about this past week was that he wanted to put puzzles together again. It has been a while since he was eager to do that. He had a 500 piece that he couldn't manage and he is not good at taking help. I was visiting some shut-ins this week and they had a 300 piece with extra large pieces. He got got the border done on it and then said it was too hard. He did let my bride help him a little and got back on track. Two of my daughters then filled in about 80 more pieces while he was gone and that motivated him to finish it. Today he did a 100 piece puzzle by himself. That kept him busy for a long time and he seemed quite satisfied to have it done. I would say that he had a very good week.